2023-2024 Thunder: Best Team Since The Russell Westbrook Era?
Following the superstar emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, strong showings from Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams and incoming rookie year of Chet Holmgren, the Thunder have its highest expectations in several seasons.
The past few years have been rebuilding seasons in Oklahoma City, with little expectations for playoff basketball. The Thunder have a roster full of young talent that needed to develop, which meant the team would take a step down.
However, last season was an incredibly surprising season by all accounts for Oklahoma City, finishing 40-42 and making the NBA's Play-In Tournament. While the Thunder didn't make the true playoffs, even competing for a spot was a massive success for the franchise.
Due to the impressive last season, Oklahoma City has its biggest expectations since the 2018-19 season, where Russell Westbrook and Paul George headlined a solid roster with players like Steven Adams and Jerami Grant.
While that roster was likely more talented, next season's Thunder team is arguably the best since. The only other competition is the 2019-20 roster, consisting of Chris Paul, a sophomore Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari.
It was a deep roster, and while they didn't have playoff expectations, the team completely gelled into a highly-competitive and selfless team. While that team couldn't get past the Houston Rockets in the first round, it went to seven games and close down to the very end.
Whether the 2019-20 roster is more talented or not than today's roster is certainly a debate. While the current roster has the most talented player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 2019-20 may have had the most complete roster.
However, if players like Giddey and Williams can make another step up, Holmgren and Cason Wallace make large impacts in their rookie seasons, and the roster stays healthy, this season's team could surpass the 2019-20 roster and become the best since the Russell Westbrook era.
The Western Conference will be very competitive this season, featuring the reigning NBA Champion Denver Nuggets, newly created superteam Phoenix Suns, and the continued dynasty of the Golden State Warriors.
It will be difficult to make it any further than the first round when matching up against these teams, but even the teams of the Russell Westbrook era went without much playoff success.
Either way, next season should be an important step forward for Oklahoma City heading into the future, cementing themselves as one of the NBA's most talented young cores.
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